"You are awfully quiet, aren't you?"

Gavin turned around to shush back at Cormac, but he stopped himself quickly enough. Cormac was a ghost and only Gavin seemed to hear him. Still, he was extremely annoying in times like these.

"It's just a small kitty cat. A doggy dog, a pupper." Cormac continued his rant about the creature, while Gavin looked into his dark surroundings, searching behind trees and bushes. Hoping to not find anything.

Only the wind cut through the oppressing silence, flowing to Gavin's favor for once. It should carry his scent exactly opposite to where he spotted the beasts silhouette. But even then, he would not relax. He would go to sleep only at the first rays of light.

"Hey uh…Gavin. I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news. But I think they are coming closer."

Gavin wanted to ask what he meant by that, so desperately he craved the information, but it revealed itself fast enough.

He could see one of the beasts back, as it crawled in the dark. It was coming closer.

Gavin grabbed the threads of magic around him and purposefully intertwined them together. He formed a simple tapestry and though it was made out of fear, it was precise work.

The beast stepped into the small clearing, where he stood, breathless.

"If it eats you and I hope it doesn't, but if it does. That means I will disappear too. Don't get yourself eaten if you can."

The beast sniffed around with her head of a wolf. It seemed to sense his presence, even through the spell. It's feline body twisted with its head, trying to find a scent strong enough to carry it to Gavin. Unaware of how very close it was.

After some time spent searching for naught, the beast sharply exhaled in frustration, before turning back and disappearing in the embrace of darkness.

"That was a close encounter! Something to write home about!" the ghost yelled happily, before turning around with a sorry face. "Sorry, I know you don't have one."

Before Gavin almost succumbed to the jabs of the ghost, before he made a mistake that would reveal him again.

The beast howled in the distance. The scream a twisted combination of a wolf's howl and a feline's hiss. It scraped him raw, to his very bones…

He looked at Julie with distress and her expression solidified what Gavin feared. He did not imagine the screams, they both heard them.

Before a question could be asked, another woman shouted from the very depths of her lungs and soul, but her scream was cut short.

"Stay here." Gavin said as he quickly scrambled to his feet and ran to the loose plank.

"No! I am going too." Julie disagreed.

"You are not! It may be dangerous!"

"You can't order me around! I am going!"

Gavin quickly slid through the hole of the plank, then he rolled a stone close to it to shut the entrance.

"Gavin! Let me out please! Gavin!" she screamed from inside. "I won't ever talk to you if you leave me here! Gavin!"

He did not care for her threats or pleading. Whatever was happening, it must have been dangerous.

Another scream cut through his thoughts and Gavin all but forgot about Julie. The screams very coming from his very house.

The door was torn from its hinges and the threshold was charred. The hallway and their wardrobe was smoking, places turned black and other still alight with embers. Still, Gavin quickly ran inside.

He heard thudding from the room, things scattering across the ground. He heard straining of men and shouts of battle.

He looked in and saw his father bloodied. He was holding onto the very blade that pierced his chest, looking straight at his murderers face. Eyes widened in shock. Gavin's mother laid in a pool of her own blood, unmoving.

The man that killed them both kicked Gavin's father from his blade and licked the blood off of the iron.

He wore luxurious coat, a simple crown stripped of any jewels and a leather vest. It was their lord, the one taking care of them, while they provided him with riches. The they sworn their loyalty too. The one that was at his parents wedding and at Gavin's birth. The very same man that baptized Gavin, in the name of the kind god.

That man was watching him, covered with blood, his expression crazed. A smile span across his face and his eyes were wide. The man was secretly a beast.

He lunged at Gavin, sword first.

Suddenly, the world slowed. The man must have been fast, but he seemed to move only inches at a time.

Gavin did not know what to do. He would die here, along with his parents. Their lord a killer. He just hoped that Julie was fine, that he would not find her in the barn. Gavin accepted what was to come and readied itself for the slowly incoming blade…but it was not meant to be.

At the very last second, something in Gavin ignited. Something that has laid dormant in him for all his life. Something that was as much an outside force as it was a part of him. Suddenly, he knew what to do.

He imagined cutting something unseen, quickly and cleanly. He cut it close to the lord, exactly before him, where he was running. He imagined twisting the places and he imagined lighting them ablaze.

An explosion sounded before Gavin and he blacked out.

Gavin fell asleep with the very first rays of light, as he promised himself. He had nothing to dream about, so he only slept. It was a time of serenity in times much more maddening. Especially coupled with the memories that were slowly coming back.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He still did not understand a lot, but his past was slowly revealing itself and he accepted it. Though it seemed…unpleasant. With every new memory, he could feel himself get more bitter. He talked with Cormac less and less, even if the spirit seemed to be there just to keep him company. But at least, it seemed that some of his magic skills were coming back.

He awoke to Cormac humming a simple song. A hymn of spring, one of the most favored in his village.

So after sighting and sitting up, Gavin decided to join in.

"…and when the sound of chipper be gone,

you know that I would craft you a song,

writing with ink and a feather,

now what would you rather,

a song about flowers or the scent that it brings,

about child-like endeavors or the sweetness of springs."

"Glad to see you awoke into a more joyous mood." Cormac remarked with a smile.

"It's not every day, that you wake up when you thought you wouldn't."

"Really? Because I don't mean to be rude, but most of our days are spent in danger no?"

"Well…yes."

"At least you are positive about it! That is the important part! Here!" Cormac pointed at a sack near them.

"What's that?"

"I don't know. Go check it out!"

Gavin got on his legs with a whimper and walked over to the sack. It used to be white cloth before, though it was stained brown and red. And it smelled absolutely awful.

"I am not picking that up. Whatever that was, it's rotten."

"Weird. Well, anything else up there?"

Gavin looked around quickly, but the forest they were in seemed to span into the very horizon, the trees high and strong. But when he looked closer, when he really focused. He could make out a small stone tower with roofs accompanying it.

"People. I will finally meet other people." He let out in relief.

"Hey! It's improper to talk like I am not here you know?"

Gavin looked on at the settlement in the distance and his heart beat fast. Why did it beat so fast? He knew not.

But he felt the tugging on his spirit. A spirit, god or fate herself urged him to go there.

And he would comply…this once.

"Please Darius, everyone is talking about it."

"I am sorry miss Veron, but I-"

"Aviana." she said fiercely. Enough for him to understand the absolute in her voice.

"Aviana, yes. I have been granted this station for my academic successes and I am to pass my knowledge onto you. I understand that it might not seem important to you, but it is important to me."

"Sorry Darius." she said tenderly, averting her eyes to pronounce her sadness. "You know I care about the past, about important lessons to learn from prior monarchs. But what is happening today is important as much. How can I be fit to rule one day, if I wouldn't know about the happenings in my own kingdom? How can that be against what you are meant to teach me?"

"I understand your query, and I will oblige if you insist so. What you say is not without reason, Aviana."

"Thank you Darius." she slowly moved her lips with the sentence, keeping her yes fixated on his. He averted them quickly to the board, though he could not hide the embarrassment in the redness of his cheeks.

"Please take into account, I have not been there myself, as my tutoring duties take precedence over my duties as an enforcer." he started. Aviana raised her eyebrow at that just slightly, but it made Darius gulp emptily. It was surprising just how little was needed to lay down, for him to pick up. Enforcers must be a lonely kind.

"That being said, some information about the incident does get to me. First of all, it is suspected to be another case of a lord's rampage. He murdered his village folk, in a mad stupor. People from all sorts of casts and origins can get mad, the only reason why a lord's murder spree is talked about to this extent, is that lords are powerful and it is unexpected from them. Average folk are known to be capable of crazy and cruel actions, but lords are supposed to be virtuous."

"Do you believe that Darius?" she asked. This time with no additional flirting. "That just because you are a royal born, you are automatically stronger? Smarter?"

"Yes."

"What does that make you Darius? You are of lower birth."

"It makes me an exception, princess." he said with utmost confidence. He wore no smile, he meant no offense. Darius was simply stating a fact.

"To continue, the murderer is still at large. His name has been taken away as is custom and a different man has been appointed by our queen. The Enforcers of Veron are on the case and expected to find the suspect and bring him to justice. Whether it is by chains or by sword."

"Who will the new lord reign over?"

"New subjects will be taken from numerous villages. It is not forceful and is completely voluntary. They are gifted hefty resources for their new start as well."

"Thank you for…indulging my curiosity Darius. But my mood has worsened, due to the gruesome subject matter. May we, continue it later?"

"Of course princess. You are ahead of our schedule, so I bear no qualms with cutting this lecture short. It is understandable."

Aviana bid him farewell rather coldly. Even if it might have undermined some of her effort, she was in no mood to flirt with a man with such rigid thinking. He was her mother's subject after all, the signs showed themselves.

It seemed to screw itself into her mind more than she thought it would. She cared not for Darius, not really. She distrusted him from their first lecture and her opinion was solidified by the fact that he was a two-star enforcer. A professional lapdog of Trisna's.

She stomped along the streets of the capital, her inner rage multiplying at the sight of every enforcer patrol. It did not help that her secluded training grounds were fairly far, because she met too many of the pompous officers. She imagined Darius walking among them, and that got her even more steamed up.

Until she saw a different enforcer. This one was much older than the rest and he carried himself much differently too. Instead of an arrogant and entitled attitude, with which they crossed the empty streets. This one sat on the stairs to some home, his jacket folded next to him and a bottle half-drank. His hair was messy and his mustache was white from the beer's foam. Even through her aversion, Aviana decided to talk to the man.

"Sir, are you alright?" she asked gently. The man lifted his head to her. His eyes were sunken, the tips of his lips low.

"No, lass. But it is nothing a pretty girl should worry her head about." he said gently.

"I understand sir, but with all that is going on. Worries are all that comes and goes."

"Aye, lass. Spoken truly." he gulped from the bottle again. "I ain't supposed to talk about it though. Can't tell ya."

"Please sir, I have heard so little. Have not heard from my family living there. It worries me more than if I knew they met their end."

"That, lass. That I can promise. Not a soul left alive of that place. Saw it myself."

"No one? How so?" Aviana tried to act sad and desperate. If the man was not drunk already, it probably would have been obvious.

"It was a bloodbath, it was. Corpses left and right, some missing arms, legs. Some were charred. Lass, some seemed to be half-eaten. It was the work of a right maniac." He drank the rest of the bottle, then proceeded to throw it away. "I am sorry lass, I am. But no family of yours is alive, and for your sake, I would not go looking for their grave." He stood up picked up his jacket and walked away.

The image of what the man described flashed through Aviana's mind. It was too similar to the incident half-a-year ago. To the lord killing his subjects. Cormac told her then, that the man seemed traumatized by the situation, similarly to what Norman looked like. There were dots appearing, but Aviana had not the yarn to string them together yet. She had to clear her mind first and for that she knew exactly the place